Mac OS X Solutions for Stereographic Applications 41
SavoWood writes "In a realm which was (IIRC) SGI-only, a new tennant has moved in. It looks like the molecular biologists et al of the world will be able to send their SGIs off to the pasture and forget about the $500/yr. software updates, in favor of running their stereographic applications on Darwin/Mac OS X. A sales rep from Apple just sent me a press release with the link to StereoGraphics, a company that makes stereoscopic visualization products. Now, to send this message into the meat shredder of why you should do everything on SGI and how Darwin is just a playtoy... *GRIN*"
A Leap Ahead for Apple (Score:2, Interesting)
In 1996, SGI (formerly Silicon Graphics, Inc.) swapped out their home-grown operating system and processor-- IRIX and MIPS, respectively-- for commodity components Linux and IA32. Today, SGI is in the doghouse and fares little better than any other PC vendor. Into the gap left by SGI came Apple, who in 1996 themselves purchased what is arguably the most advanced UNIX in existance: OPENSTEP, aka Mac OS X.
Now with QuickTime 6.1 and Quartz Extreme, is there anything that can stop Apple's juggernaut-lke race to be king of the high-end server market? Only lack of hardware to run their crown jewels on. The Mac is so good at what it does, Apple is pressing Motorola and IBM for PowerPC chips that can meet the exhaustive demands of new high-end customers. The best of both breeds, Apple offers scalable, high-end UNIX to the Fortune 500 clientele as well as ease of use and simplicity to its private consumers. With things going so well, Apple seems to be on an unstoppable rise.
Unstoppable might be a bit much... (Score:1)
The StereoGraphics press release:
http://www.stereographics.com/news_about_us/03new
Re:A Leap Ahead for Apple (Score:2, Insightful)
Never before? Maybe, but then why do we keep hearing this phrase, year after year
Re:A Leap Ahead for Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
Never before? Maybe, but then why do we keep hearing this phrase, year after year
Because the power available to the consumer grows year after year, making it true year after year?
Re:A Leap Ahead for Apple (Score:2)
All praise Saint Gordon!
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
1) SGI has not swapped out Irix and MIPS. They sell Linux/x86 and NT/x86 equipment in addition to Irix and MIPS. If you want the good stuff, you still gotta use Irix.
2) Openstep is NOT a Unix. It's a programming toolkit, just like GTK+ and Cocoa. (heck, Cocoa basically is Openstep.
Even if you were to argue that Nextstep was the most advanced Unix at the time, you would have an uphill battle. Its GUI was the best ever made, but things under the hood weren't as beautiful - I would use a NeXT as a workstation, but never a server.
3) Apple has NOT filled the gap made by SGI. Cheap ass x86 hardware has.
4) Back to OpenStep - OpenStep isn't Mac OS X. Mac OS X's API is based on OpenStep, and they both use a Mach kernel. Virtually everything else is different.
5) What in the @$#@(#@$&@!$@#% does Quicktime have to do with servers?
6) They need higher-end hardware to meet the exhaustive demands Aqua is more like it.
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
I beg to differ... NeXT had the best GUI [for Unix]? You should really try taking a look at Mac OS X [apple.com].
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
OPENSTEP is a UNIX the same as NeXTStep was a UNIX and Mac OS X is a UNIX or Solaris is a UNIX...
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Platform Vendors Supporting the Single UNIX Specification [unix-systems.org]
2) I would argue that Apple has taken over some SGI market share. Personally, I use Maya 4.5 on OS X. I used to use Softimage on an SGI. (The Irix user experience is a lot more buggy than OS X BTW).
3) Quicktime is server software, therefore I would say that it has something to do with servers.
Quicktime Streaming Server [apple.com]
4) Yes, Apple will always need higher-end hardware...There will never be a time when people say "Damn this hardware is just too fast for me".
Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:2)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:2)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:2)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:1)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:2)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:2)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:1)
Re:Howard Coselle Does Tech? (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, if Apple wanted that market, they could probably do some really intriguing things using the Mach foundations of OSX (much as IBM did using the Mach foundations of AIX.) But "could" and "have" are very different things. Further, if Apple wants to be taken as a high-end server vendor, they will also have to develop high-end professional services. Sorry, but much as I love my powerbook, Apple just aren't there yet.
Drinkin Kool Aid - Re:A Leap Ahead for Apple (Score:2)
Finally (Score:3, Funny)
Stereographics and games (Score:4, Interesting)
A Unique Darwin Application? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A Unique Darwin Application? (Score:4, Informative)
The kernel controls everything and the bsd layer is essential for software development. Without the BSD layer, the mac could not compile regular unix software or compile any software made in project builder.
What you refer to as "Mac OS X" is actually the quartz rendering layer and an application called the finder.
The point is that Darwin and Quartz make an incredible combination, making application development really nice. Someone could add a library that did the same work as Quartz's, but there's absolutely nothing that can compete with Quartz's rendering capabilities.
There's no comperable product on the Windows or the UNIX/Linux side, but anything built on a plain-old darwin system can have a regular kde/windowmaker/gtk/etc. with standard xfree86 libraries and headers.
Apple's new X11 server can replace the stardard Aqua window manager, if you know how. If you don't know how, you have no business even touching that functionality.
Another point: darwin can be run in its purest, UNIX form with xfree86. Startup will display the standard logging that anyone would see in a Linux system instead of the Apple logo. This can be done even if Mac OS X is installed, if you know how. Again, if you don't know how, you probably have no business complaining about Mac OS X.
Darwin w/ KDE can, and has been done successfully, on many systems, including my system. However, if one has the hardware to use Mac OS X and all its assorted components, what is the point of using software than isn't nearly as nice as Mac OS X?
Re: (Score:2)
Hurray for everybody! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hurray for everybody! (Score:2)
its software, not glasses thats missing (Score:2, Informative)
Implications of Stereo support for the Mac (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm really curious how Apple is going to price stereo support. Currently, NVidia and ATI make you buy the workstation version of their video cards, a $800 to $1500 card, instead of a $200 to $400 consumer card, if you want a stereo connector with driver support. If Apple sells stereo at a small premimum, then that reduces the market for the high-margin workstation cards. Not clear if NVidia or ATI will let them or continue to sell to Apple.
Another interesting aspect to this is that Apple writes its own drivers for NVidia and ATI chips and right now Apple has the buggiest OpenGL drivers out there (i.e., my molecular graphics application can crash Mac OS X doing legal OpenGL, -- works fine on Linux and Windows with similar chips, and on SGIs). There are tricky aspects to adding stereo support to the drivers if you want the stereo drawing to be in a window with the GUI drawn normally (with Aqua in mono). I hope the Apple driver team is up to the task!
Re:Implications of Stereo support for the Mac (Score:2)
What im getting at is, i wonder how long it will be until we start to see developer boards (read Quadro and Fire GL and Wildcat) released for the Mac. Im sure hardware support is a reason that most 3d packages dont have a mac port.
but maybe the real reason im bitter is i have to use a PC to run AW Studiotools, when Maya runs in OSX... grumble... grumble...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Implications of Stereo support for the Mac (Score:1)